| LED Digest 1522: Fraud Prevention or Discrimination? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. February 20, 2003 Issue #1522 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== International Fraud Protection ==-- ~ David Neese "...we get address verification and that is very helpful in reducing fraud." ~ Marty R. Milette "One has to achieve a 'balance' between fraud prevention and discrimination." --== Outsourcing Web Development ==-- ~ Dejan Bizinger "...most Internet jobs can be done working from home." --== Copyright Notices ==-- ~ Heikki Nylund "...I mark the date of the update at the bottom of the page..." ~ Anne McKay "[An update notice] does not replace a copyright notice." ===== GEEK TIPS ================== --== Space Around Forms ==-- ~ Adam Bostock ~ Andreas Huttenrauch ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Site Search ==-- ~ Terry Wadman ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: David Neese Subject: Fraud protection Regarding Godaddy not accepting a Singapore credit card, and this is not to offend the individual complaining who feels cheated by their actions, but we will absolutely not accept credit card as a method of payment from Singapore. 100% of all Singapore orders for us are fraudulent. We were once convinced we had a legitimate one from Singapore and shipped the goods and Fedex called us to tell us it was fraud and that almost all computer related small shipments into Singapore are fraud, so we know it isn't just our opinion. Here in the USA and now also the UK, Germany, some Japan, and some parts of Australia we get address verification and that is very helpful in reducing fraud. On others we have someone call the issuing bank the card is from and get the address verification. Occassionally we can't find a bank that speaks English or that can't confirm what we need, but so far it has been 100% effective. It is really sad that so much fraud is attempted. Thanks, David Neese Eagle Computer Systems, Inc www.saveateagle.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Marty R. Milette Subject: Fraud protection One has to achieve a 'balance' between fraud prevention and discrimination. Unfortunately, most merchants are so busy covering their own butts -- they don't think about all the problems they cause for their foreign customers. You need to remember that financial systems all over the world are DIFFERENT. Many countries abroad don't even know what a check is -- in some countries it is impossible to get a credit card -- in other countries bank transfers are impossible. If you want to expand your market outside your own back yard -- you have to be FLEXIBLE and not descriminate against someone just because they happen to be living somewhere outside the USA. For example, I am a Canadian with a Canadian address but live in Russia. My credit cards are Canadian and American, however the fun comes when trying to order any kind of physical goods. First, where the goods need to be sent is seldom where either of the cards are registered. (Friends coming to Russia bring stuff to me -- avoiding ridiculous shipping charges and postal theft.) I don't receive credit card statements here -- everything is done on-line, so I can't fax the top part of any statements PLUS an international FAX costs a lot of money -- seldom does a FAX ever go through the first, second or sometimes third time through. ($$$) Then there are outfits like PayPal -- a good system, but if I even open up my account from a web browser anywhere outside the USA or Canada -- the buggers LOCK my account so I can't send or receive any money with it. (And if you've ever tried to get human SUPPORT from PayPal -- well, it makes a root canal seem like a cold beer on a hot day.) Even some of the Canadian and US banks have their web sites set up so that you can't even VIEW the sites outside North America. (To get around these kinds of restrictions, I at least have the option to open up a remote terminal session to my server in Canada and run the browser remotely. Ha!) If you want to capture a foreign market -- you need to be flexible, and realize that not all them 'damn foreigners' are out to cheat you. Deal with it -- either that, or if you don't want business from abroad, please be sure to put a big notice on every page of your site, "International Customers NOT Welcome!" Then you won't wast your time -- or THEIRS. Marty R. Milette, P.Prog. five-star-hotels.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Dejan Bizinger Subject: Outsourcing > ... when potential clients project values are collectively > large enough, we believe that developers keen on partnering > with US companies must be ready to... meet the clients > face to face. - Neal Meaker, LED 1519 Face to face is, of course, always the best way to communicate (unless you communicate with an introvert person). I love to communicate face to face but it doesn't mean that I agree with you when you say that, "... developers keen on partnering with US companies must... meet the clients face to face." It depends on the project. I think that even if a person doesn't have a clue about software and hire a web developer for making, for example, customized email management software, they can finish that deal even via email conversation. Client will tell him / her what he / she wants. This way the developer will be able to get an image about that desired software. I don't have to mention that with quality video conferencing things would be even much more easier. Phones are, also, excellent addition for email communication. My opinion is that the most Internet jobs can be done working from home. Some jobs are more "home-friendly" than others. For example, I find web development very home-friendly. The most important thing is that the client knows what he / she wants. If the client is ready to invest more money in the project with buying air-tickets and paying hotel expenses, then it is OK (many people like to travel :)). But if you can finish the job cheaper (with the same quality like with the face to face communication) why would you invest extra money? You have to find the best cost / benefit ratio. Best regards, Dejan Bizinger, Contributing Editor SKYLIST Solutions http://www.skylist.net ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Heikki Nylund Subject: copyright Whenever I change the contents of an inner page, I mark the date of the update at the bottom of the page, e.g., 'updated 2003-02-14 (yyyy-mm-dd)', and add the same information at the bottom of the front page (index.html), after the copyright statement, e.g., 'copyright (c) of this site Heikki Nylund 2000...2003 updated 2003-02-14 (yyyy-mm-dd)' Why the ellipse (...) and not a dash (-) between the years? Because the dash between numbers can be interpreted as a minus sign, while the ellipse can only indicate the beginning and the end of a continuum, in the above case that I have created the site in 2000 and changed something in all the subsequent years up to the current. Cheers, Heikki Nylund chitarrata.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Anne McKay Subject: Copyright Hello again LED'ers :-) > ... wouldn't it be easier to put a last updated date > on the page if you are worried that the visitor viewing > the page might think that the page is from 2001? - Vicki Lambert, LED 1521 Yes, this is a good idea. BUT - this does not replace a copyright notice. However, a good way to phrase such a thing would be "(c)2003 Anne McKay. All rights reserved. Site (or page) last updated 2/16/2003." There's also little javascripts you can insert that will do this automatically. Anne McKay Divinity Design divinitydesign.com ===== GEEK TIPS =================================== From: Adam Bostock Subject: Form space > When you make a form, it seems to force some space > around itself on the page... when your form is an image > or button, any surrounding text is forced away... - Phil Chave, LED 1521 Hi Phil I get round this problem by putting the form tags before all the HTML code that you want to be bunched up together. It seems to work fine for me. For example: <.form ...> [optional misc html] your button html and surrounding text <./form> (Taking it to the extreme, I *guess* in theory that you could put the form tag right at the top of the page (body), and close the form right at the bottom of the page. Though you don't need to be this extreme typically.) I hope that helps. regards Adam Bostock free Online Innovation Forum if++ ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Andreas Huttenrauch Subject: Form space This is a common problem with forms. The only work-around I know of is to use style sheets. Either in the style sheet declare (for all forms): form { margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; } .. or directly in the html form declaration: <.FORM style="margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt" actio=....... Hope that helps. Andreas Huttenrauch Globi Web Solutions ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Terry Wadman Subject: Site Search Engines > I love all the suggestions on web site search engines, > and the fact that they are free is great! What I don't like > is the fact that they all have forced advertisements. - Niki Mcelroy, LED 1521 Hi Nicki We have found a free site search engine, that should meet your requirements, which comes with an added bonus as well. We have found that you really need to have good Title tags and content tags on each page to make it work well, the bonus result being if your site search works effectively, then it puts you in very good stead with the public seach engines as well, especially Google and Yahoo. In fact it acts as your own personal search engine optimizer. It has no ads, is free for commercial and private use, and works with Linux as used on our site (http://www.webhostsus.com) and with Windows as used on http://www.dejacey.net. Have a look there to see if it is what you are looking for. You need to have CGI Permissions on your site, but it is very easy to setup. We have used it on several sites and almost always ended up in the top 40 listings, for the various keywords, without paid inclusion in any. The script is FM sitesearch Lite and is available from http://www.focalmedia.net we have no affiliation with them -- in fact have normally written all our own CGI-scripts but found this one very useful Hope that you find it as good as we did. Terry Wadman Dejacey Network ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
